Airbnb 90 Day Rule in London: Essential Guide for Hosts

If you’re letting an entire property on Airbnb in London, one rule governs everything else: you can only take 90 booked nights a year without planning permission.

That limit has applied across Greater London since 2017. It isn’t an Airbnb policy — it’s planning law, and the property owner is legally responsible for it, not the platform. Breach it and you’re looking at enforcement action and fines of up to £20,000 per offence, on top of separate risks to your mortgage and lease.

This guide covers what the rule actually says, who it catches, how enforcement works in practice in 2026, what planning permission really costs (and your odds of getting it, borough by borough), and how hosts build a full-year income strategy around a 90-night ceiling.

What Is the Airbnb 90 Day Rule in London?

The 90-day rule restricts entire-home short-term lets in Greater London to 90 nights of paying-guest occupancy per calendar year, unless the property has planning permission for a change of use.

It isn’t new, and it isn’t really about Airbnb. The Greater London Council (General Powers) Act 1973 originally made any short-term letting of a residential property in London a material change of use requiring full planning permission — in effect, banning casual short lets outright. That stayed the rule for over 40 years, technically applying even before Airbnb existed. The Deregulation Act 2015, s.44 relaxed it: London homeowners could let for up to 90 nights per calendar year without needing permission at all. That 90-night figure is the compromise between “no short lets” and “no restriction,” and it’s why hosts elsewhere in England, where the 1973 Act never applied, have no equivalent statutory cap.

Airbnb began auto-enforcing the cap on London listings in January 2017, becoming the first platform to build the limit directly into the booking calendar.

What counts as a “night”

• A night counts when a guest occupies the property under a paid booking, regardless of price or guest count.
• A guest checking in Monday and out Wednesday has used 2 nights.
• Listed-but-unbooked nights don’t count.
• The counter runs 1 January to 31 December and resets to zero on 1 January — it’s a calendar year, not a rolling 12 months from your first booking.

Who the Rule Applies To

Entire-home listings: covered

Any property where guests have exclusive use with no host present counts — houses, flats, or converted spaces, across all 32 boroughs and the City of London. It makes no difference whether you list on one platform or five: all nights combine toward the same 90-night total for that property.

Hosted stays: exempt

If you live in the property while guests stay — letting a spare room while remaining resident — those nights don’t count at all, and there’s no annual cap. The test is genuine residency: you need to actually be present, typically evidenced by paying council tax at the address. If you list a room but leave the property for the weekend while a guest occupies the rest of it, a council could treat that as an entire-home let rather than a hosted stay.

Bookings of 90+ consecutive nights: exempt

A single booking of 90 or more consecutive nights to one guest is a tenancy, not a short let, and sits outside the cap entirely — regardless of which platform it was booked through. This single fact is the basis of the mid-term letting strategy covered below. It cuts both ways, though: a stay that starts as a short booking can’t be retroactively reclassified as a tenancy if the guest later decides to extend past 90 nights, so confirm booking length at the point of booking, not after the fact.

Properties with planning permission: exempt from the 90-night ceiling only

Planning permission for a change of use removes the 90-night limit for that specific property — but it doesn’t override your lease, mortgage terms, or building management rules, which are separate legal restrictions covered below.

How Enforcement Actually Works in 2026

This is the section most guides skip past, and it’s where hosts get caught out.

Airbnb blocks automatically — nobody else does

Airbnb tracks booked nights on every entire-home London listing and locks the calendar hard at night 90, with no new bookings possible until 1 January. Hosts with planning permission can submit proof to Airbnb to have the cap lifted from that specific listing. Booking.com has said it’s building similar tracking, but enforcement there remains inconsistent; Vrbo and direct-booking channels have none at all.

The legal cap is per property, not per platform — and this is the expensive misunderstanding

The 90 nights is a limit on the property, set in planning law. It has nothing to do with which platform took the booking. Take 60 nights on Airbnb and 40 on Booking.com, and you’re in breach at night 91 — even though neither platform individually shows you over the limit, and even though Airbnb’s own counter never triggered.

Hosts self-managing across multiple channels need one unified log of every booked night, checked against the combined total, not against whatever each platform’s dashboard happens to show.

Councils have sharpened enforcement since 2023

Early enforcement was largely complaint-driven and inconsistent. That’s changed. Westminster, Camden, and Tower Hamlets now run dedicated short-let enforcement functions that actively monitor listing platforms rather than waiting for complaints. Westminster has pursued cases resulting in penalties well above the standard per-offence figure where a host or operator ran multiple unauthorised lets — a reminder that the £20,000 maximum is per offence, so a portfolio in breach across several properties can be liable for a multiple of that figure. Most outer boroughs remain more complaint-driven in practice, but the direction of travel across London is toward proactive monitoring, not away from it.

Most investigations start the same way: a neighbour complaint about noise, bins, or a constant rotation of wheeled suitcases and keybox check-ins. Good-neighbour basics — clear guest guidance on quiet hours and bin days, a visible contact number, introducing yourself to immediate neighbours — measurably cut enforcement risk independent of your paperwork.

Penalties for Breaching the Limit

Stage	What happens
Investigation	Triggered by a neighbour complaint or council platform monitoring; you’ll be asked to produce booking records
Planning Contravention Notice	A formal request for information on how the property is used
Enforcement Notice	A formal order to stop the unauthorised use; ignoring it is a criminal offence
Fine	Up to £20,000 per offence; can stack for repeat or multi-property breaches
Listing removal	Councils can notify Airbnb of a breach; platforms generally comply with takedown requests

 

Two consequences of breaching sit outside the planning system entirely and catch hosts off guard:

• Mortgage. Most residential mortgages prohibit commercial short-letting outright. A breach can entitle your lender to demand a switch to a buy-to-let or commercial product, or in some cases call in the loan.
• Lease. The majority of London long-leasehold flats prohibit or restrict short-term letting in the lease itself. This is enforced by the freeholder, independent of any council action, and can lead to forfeiture proceedings — a far more serious outcome than the planning fine itself.
• HMRC. Since January 2024, Airbnb reports UK host earnings directly to HMRC under the international DAC7 data-sharing rules. Undeclared short-let income is now straightforward for HMRC to identify, and a council enforcement investigation frequently surfaces this at the same time.

Getting Planning Permission to Exceed 90 Nights

You can apply to your borough for change-of-use permission, converting the property’s status from residential (C3) to short-term visitor accommodation.

• Cost: Full application fees run roughly £293–£578 depending on the borough; many boroughs also offer paid pre-application advice, typically £100–£300, to gauge your odds before committing to the full fee.
• Timeline: Standard target is 8–13 weeks for a decision.
• Odds: Sharply dependent on borough and building. Westminster, Camden, and Kensington & Chelsea — the boroughs with the most acute housing pressure — refuse the large majority of these applications. Outer boroughs are generally more pragmatic. A flat in a building already operating as serviced apartments is a materially stronger case than a flat in a quiet residential block.
• What councils weigh: impact on housing supply, neighbour amenity, local plan policy, and the character of the surrounding area.

Even where permission is granted, it attaches to the property’s planning status only — it does not override a lease covenant or mortgage restriction, both of which need checking and resolving separately. Insurance is a third, separate gap: standard residential policies typically exclude short-let use entirely, so specialist short-term rental cover — for guest injury, property damage, and liability — is worth arranging regardless of your planning status. (See our guide to Airbnb insurance for what that actually needs to cover.)

What’s Changing in 2026 — and What Isn’t Confirmed Yet

Several other regulatory changes are moving in parallel with the 90-day rule, and it’s worth being precise about what’s actually in force versus still proposed, because hosts researching this in 2026 are getting conflicting information.

• National short-term let registration scheme. Legislated under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, this would require every short-term let in England to register on a national portal, display a registration number on listings, and confirm basic safety compliance (gas safety, EICR, smoke/CO alarms, fire risk assessment). A target go-live of April 2026 was cited by government as recently as mid-2025, but as of late 2026 the scheme is still not live — no portal, fee structure, or firm go-live date has been published. Treat any specific launch date you read as provisional, and check GOV.UK directly before making decisions based on it. Crucially, registration would sit on top of the 90-day rule, not replace it — even a registered property couldn’t legally exceed 90 nights without planning permission.
• Proposed C5 use class. A dedicated planning use class specifically for short-term lets has been consulted on, alongside permitted development rights to move between C3 (residential) and the new class, with councils able to remove those rights via Article 4 Directions in high-pressure areas. As of late 2026, no statutory instrument introducing C5 has been laid — this remains a proposal, not a rule you need to plan around yet.
• FHL tax regime abolition. This one is confirmed and already in effect: the Furnished Holiday Lettings tax regime ended on 6 April 2025, removing mortgage interest relief at the full rate, capital allowances, and Business Asset Disposal Relief for short-let income. It doesn’t change the 90-day rule itself, but it does change the financial case for running a pure short-let model, which is one more reason the mid-term strategy below has become more common in 2026.

Building a Full-Year Income Strategy Around the Cap

You can’t legally exceed 90 nights without permission, but you can build a year-round letting business around that limit.

Use your 90 nights on peak demand

Concentrate short-term bookings on the periods where nightly rates are highest — school holidays, major London events, and the spring/summer season generally outperforms off-peak weeks by a wide margin. Set an internal alert at 70 nights to start planning your transition, and a hard stop at 80 to lock in your remaining highest-value bookings and begin blocking the calendar across every platform.

Switch to mid-term lets after night 90

The most common strategy by far. Once the calendar’s blocked, list the property for 90+ consecutive nights through corporate housing channels, relocation agents, or mid-term platforms. Because a 90+ night single booking is a tenancy rather than a short let, it sits entirely outside the cap. Nightly rates drop, but occupancy, net yield, and reduced turnover costs (fewer cleans, fewer changeovers, less guest churn) often make the annual numbers stronger than a pure short-let model capped at a quarter of the year. Corporate relocations, insurance-placement housing, and extended work assignments are the most reliable sources of this demand in London.

Diversify platforms — but only within your 90 nights

Listing across Airbnb, Booking.com, and Vrbo simultaneously gives you rate flexibility and insulates you from a single-platform downturn — but only inside your 90-night allowance. The discipline is one accurate, centralised count of nights across every channel, not per-platform tracking.

Consider a guaranteed rent arrangement for quieter stretches

For hosts who’d rather not manage the short-to-mid-term transition themselves, guaranteed rent agreements provide fixed monthly income through the year, generally at a lower ceiling than a well-run self-managed hybrid strategy, but with no compliance tracking or turnover management required.

Nights outside London — where the 90-day cap doesn’t apply

The statutory 90-night cap is a London-only rule. If you’re weighing a London property against a purchase elsewhere in the UK, here’s what actually governs short lets in the areas JF operates:

Area	90-night cap?	What applies instead
Greater London	Yes — 90 nights/year	Deregulation Act 2015, s.44; Airbnb auto-blocks at night 90
Brighton	No	Planning rules assessed case-by-case; no automatic night cap
Leeds, Harrogate, York	No	Planning rules assessed case-by-case; watch for local Article 4 activity
Windsor, Guildford	No	Planning rules assessed case-by-case
Manchester	No	Planning rules assessed case-by-case
England-wide (all areas)	—	National registration scheme expected during 2026, timing unconfirmed

 

Outside London, there’s generally no statutory night cap — but that doesn’t mean no rules. Planning permission can still be required if short-letting becomes a property’s primary use, and every English host will need to register once the national scheme goes live. If you’re comparing a London acquisition against one of these markets, our team can walk through the compliance picture for each.

Staying Compliant Without Losing Income

The 90-day rule rewards hosts who plan rather than react. In practice, that means:

• Logging every booked night across every platform in one place, from day one of the calendar year
• Setting your own alerts at 70 and 80 nights, ahead of Airbnb’s hard block at 90
• Deciding your post-90-night strategy — mid-term lets, planning permission, or guaranteed rent — before you hit the limit, not after
• Confirming your lease and mortgage terms permit short-letting at all, independent of the 90-night question
• Arranging specialist short-let insurance rather than relying on standard residential cover

If you’d rather hand this off, JF Property Partners manages the full compliance picture for London hosts — unified night tracking across platforms, the transition to mid-term lets once you hit the cap, and borough-specific guidance on planning permission odds. Get in touch at info@jfpropertypartners.com, call +44 7457 427143, or visit our contact page for a tailored assessment of your property.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the 90-day rule and where does it apply?

The 90-day rule caps entire-home short-term lets in Greater London — all 32 boroughs plus the City of London — at 90 booked nights per calendar year without planning permission. It doesn’t apply anywhere else in England.

Does the 90-day count reset each year, or does it roll over?

It resets to zero on 1 January every year. It’s a fixed calendar year, not a rolling 12-month window from your first booking.

Do private room or hosted-stay listings count toward the 90 nights?

No. If you remain resident in the property while guests stay — typically evidenced by paying council tax there — those nights are exempt entirely, with no annual cap.

If I list on Airbnb and Booking.com, do I get 90 nights on each?

No. The 90-night limit applies to the property, combined across every platform. 50 nights on Airbnb plus 45 on Booking.com is 95 nights — a breach — even though neither platform’s own counter shows you over the limit.

What happens once I hit 90 nights?

Airbnb’s calendar locks automatically for entire-home London listings and won’t accept new bookings until 1 January. Continuing to let beyond 90 nights without planning permission is a breach of planning control regardless of platform.

Can I get planning permission to exceed 90 nights?

Yes, by applying to your borough for change-of-use permission — typically £293–£578 in fees, with an 8–13 week decision timeline. Approval odds vary sharply by borough: Westminster, Camden, and Kensington & Chelsea refuse most such applications; outer boroughs are generally more pragmatic.

What are the penalties for breaching the 90-day rule?

Up to £20,000 per offence under planning enforcement powers, plus possible listing removal, and separate consequences under your mortgage terms and lease that can be more serious than the planning fine itself.

Does a long single booking count toward the 90-night cap?

No. A single booking of 90 or more consecutive nights to one guest is treated as a tenancy, not a short let, and falls outside the cap entirely — the basis of the mid-term letting strategy many London hosts use to fill the rest of the year.

Is a national registration scheme replacing the 90-day rule?

No — they’re separate and both apply. A national short-term let registration scheme is expected to launch in England during 2026, but as of late 2026 it has no confirmed go-live date. Even once live, it sits alongside the 90-day rule, not in place of it.

Does the 90-day rule apply in Brighton, Leeds, York, or Manchester?

No. The statutory cap is specific to Greater London under the Deregulation Act 2015. These areas have no equivalent night cap, though local planning rules and the incoming national registration scheme still apply.